Thursday, August 26, 2010

I had a follow up appointment with Dr Venna at Washington Hospital Center today regarding my recent PET scan and the outcome was rather unexpected. By the end of our discussion both he and I agreed that we do not have enough information to make an objective determination as to the over status of my disease. On one hand, we have a PET scan that shows a body that has active malignancies. On the other we know that for someone like me to have malignant melanoma for more than a year and I'm still alive is strange. He admitted to me that there is a disconnect in knowing my history and seeing how alive and well I am actually doing. "You really did look great, Mr Brockey!", he said in an excited but totally professional tone.

As I've been reporting on the blog, my LDH has been slowly climbing. The last blood work now has me at a level of 440 where the upper level should be at about 250. By no means is the 440 figure alone all that worrisome, but the rising pattern indicates something going on. Now we just have to figure out what that something is. As Dr Cervantes indicated and Dr Venna confirmed, if we have tumors breaking down they too would release the same enzymes and cause the LDH marker to increase. So a rising LDH could be good, or a rising LDH could be bad. So how do we find out which it is? I'm gonna have to go back in for the diagnostic CT, it is the only way to know for sure.

I also asked Dr Venna to help me think clearly about cancer, the immune system and my current approach. All the voodoo this and green tea that aside, I asked him to consider that my simple approach at basically providing my body everything that it needs and giving it nothing that it doesn't, would it be possible for the human body to eventually correctly identify and rid itself of this cancer. I was satisfied by his answer in that he didn't discount it and further agreed that the human body does in fact have the mechanisms required for the job.

He wants me to meet with Dr Jang, who is new to Washington Hospital Center and from what I understand is another young face in this field. Dr Venna believes that I should work with him so that we can better track my progress and consider all options. I'm not totally against the meet and greet and will do so on Tuesday.

prayers to you always friend. i admire your journey and and am thankful you are still here, fighting for your family. don't worry about the drs or scans..keep doing what you feel is best for your body and own it.

Like you said in your previous post...Knowledge IS Power! So getting that pesky CT Scan will only increase your knowledge as to what is going on with your body. It's not like you don't know that you have metastatic melanoma...and yet...LOOK AT YOU!! :o) Even the doctors are amazed--and why shouldn't they be?

People are skeptical. So whether they are skeptical about the effectiveness of Gerson...or about the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs...or about the effectiveness of prayer...I don't know a SOUL who isn't grateful for a miracle, no matter what their beliefs!!!

You are a living example of HOPE! You remind me of the Gerson-version of Jason Lininger (the Fight Back speaker I introduced you to at Relay). No one expected him to survive...and yet...he's doing GREAT many years later!

Hi!I've been following your blog for some time now. Thank you so much for sharing the alternative side to cacncer treatments. I've always been very interested in the gerson therapy. If you ever have a chance you should check out doctoryourself.com. LOTS of good info on cancer, very big advocate on gerson as well. I also wanted to share that I met this woman at sprouts supermarket who was diagnosed with cancer 26 years ago. She's never once recieved chemo and cancer has returned 6 times. She's beat it everytime naturally and looks very alive and healthy. If there was one thing about cancer she would want people to know, it's not to be afraid of it. I wish I asked her more about her diet, I know it was mostly live foods.Go with your intuition and remember doctors don't know everything. It's amazing how important it is to stay positive, even the cells in our body react differently depending on our moods. Take care and keep juicing!